During the coronavirus pandemic, it’s been critical for many customer service departments to have an end-to-end AI solution that provides simple management and fast implementation, apart from having conversational abilities.
Below, we’ll explain the benefits of this kind of technology and its application in customer service strategies during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
When it comes to technology, there’s been a key factor in the success of our customers’ post-coronavirus strategies: fast implementation and simple management of solutions.
In a matter of weeks, customer service departments had to reconfigure their goals and processes. With their teams working remotely and service channels limited, many had to resort to automated solutions for customer service in order to ensure the continuity of operations and decentralize channels.
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But setting up new technology can turn into an issue if it needs a large implementation team, programming know-how, and bureaucratic steps. Some companies work up to 8 months to implement a solution, which is unthinkable in today’s world, and more so in a crisis.
The same thing happens with teams that already have the technology, but if it’s complex, strategy changes and last-minute content are impossible to do.
So having an end-to-end solution was a key factor for most companies. They don’t just consider conversational abilities for their customer service, but also the needs, goals, and strategies of their customer service departments.
Why? Let’s look at the main advantages of this kind of technology.
To begin with, new technology has to be quick and easy to implement, avoiding bureaucratic processes and the involvement of a development team.
For this, the best you can do is look for a solutions provider that has an onboarding team. They’ll help implement the software as quickly as possible.
Especially in a crisis like what we’re facing with coronavirus, this is critical. From one week to the next, the reality for companies changed completely, and goals that used to be for the long term had to be fast-tracked in order to ensure that operations continued.
In general, customer service team members don’t implement or set up tech solutions.
That’s why it’s important for the solution to have an easy-to-manage platform with obvious actions and user-friendly navigation.
For a conversational solution, this involves content upload in particular. This task has to be quick and simple, with any team member able to set up the bot. This means enabling and disabling intents within minutes and importing content from other platforms like Excel or Zendesk Guide.
Plus, many conversational chatbots also offer themed content packages for downloading and implementing rapidly.
A great example of this is BBVA, one of Aivo’s customers. When coronavirus arrived, they had to change all the bot’s content for it to adapt to customers’ new needs.
In less than a week, their entire strategy changed and the customer service team could fix it on their own through our platform.
“Our virtual assistant was a critical information tool in the coronavirus pandemic,” explains Christian Petruzzi, Customer Service Manager.
For a customer service solution to be successful, it needs to learn and improve constantly. So training the bot based on its daily experience with customers is key.
A simple and automatic way to do this is if the solution itself carries out this process. Thanks to the training tools, you can view unresolved inquiries and add them to the knowledge base with just a click.
And if you want a more detailed analysis, you can check the chat reports and view conversations manually.
This speeds up content upload based on users’ actual needs.
Plus, to train the bot, the platform has to offer metrics and statistics, and it has to be easy to access and interpret them.
Another essential feature is that the solution can be stored in the cloud. Unlike on-premise software, the cloud gives access to any team member, wherever they are.
This was a huge advantage for many companies during the COVID-19 crisis. As mandatory quarantine was suddenly imposed in many countries, so many teams had to transition to remote work.
Having all information in the cloud lets them continue working seamlessly, making it easy to access information and continue operations.
Customers expect omnichannel service nowadays. This means they expect the same experience across all channels, like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or SMS.
In fact, according to a study by Aivo, there was a 500% increase in the number of conversations among brands and customers on WhatsApp during the COVID-19 pandemic.
That’s why it’s not only important that the conversational solution is compatible with these channels, but that content can be uploaded to all of them simultaneously.
A platform that’s specially designed to offer an omnichannel experience lets you upload and post content simultaneously across all channels. This way, you don’t have to think about how to adapt each of the answers depending on where they’ll be displayed, whether it’s WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
The last key aspect is that it’s easy to transfer more complex inquiries to a human agent. Live chats and chatbots can become best friends if they’re set up to work together.
For this, you have to consider two factors. First, that the bot enables native integration of the live chat. Second, that it has a conversation orchestrator that enables bot-human-bot transfer.
We’re all in this together. Customer behavior is changing and as an entrepreneur, your strategies are probably being redefined to keep up.
Es por eso que mi recomendación es que antes de elegir tu tecnología tengas en claro estas redefiniciones en tu estrategia. Identifica cuáles son tus necesidades para luego evaluar cuáles son las herramientas que te ayudarán a cumplir tus objetivos.
Seleccionar la tecnología correcta, entender cómo tu cliente quiere hablar con la empresa y pensar a largo plazo es clave para brindar una experiencia que se adapte al contexto actual tanto de tu compañía como de tus clientes.
